With about half of the nearly $200 million they need, UCF and Osceola County officials said Tuesday that they are confident they can quickly build a state-of-the-art research facility in Kissimmee to create "smart" sensors.

Supporters say the center wouldadvance technologies used in making such things as automobiles, home appliances and surgical equipment. University of Central Florida President John Hitt said the proposal has the potential to be an "economic game changer" for the region.

A preliminary "memorandum of understanding" gives Osceola, UCF and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council a year to make the plan happen. The proposal, first revealed at an Osceola County Commission meeting Monday night, was originally described as being worth $61 million.

A key detail that needs to be worked out isadditional funding. It would cost at least $195 million to build and equip the proposed 100,000-square-foot center and also to cover its first few years of operating expenses.The three parties so far have committed about $100 million.

M.J. Soileau, UCF's vice president of research and commercialization, said the partners will work aggressively in coming months to find more money. They plan to ask state and local government organizations for help, he said.

"We have many very dedicated people in Central Florida that are going to help us," he said, adding that the goal is to open the Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center within a year.

On Tuesday, the University of Florida said it would contribute $250,000.

UCF has committed $10 million and offered an additional $7 million in faculty salaries to help run the center. Osceola would donate the land — 20 acres near the intersection of U.S. Highway 192 and Florida's Turnpike — and put $61 million toward construction and other expenses. The county also agreed to make arrangements for $22.5 million in infrastructure.

The county plans to sell bonds to fund the project. The $10 million UCF has committed would come from federal and privately funded contracts and grants, a school spokesman said.

The Corridor Council, which helps finance high-tech ventures, also will provide some funding, including $1 million that will go toward startup costs.

Osceola County Manager Don Fisher said he was glad the Judge Farms property was still available for use. At least twice in the past two years, Osceola has pitched projects for the county-owned parcel. Both earlier proposals failed.

Last August, county administrators wanted to use the land for a $98 million Major League spring-training baseball complex for the Washington Nationals. Before that, county leaders were in negotiations with foreign investors to build a Chinese-owned international-trade center there.

"What this will do for the county's economy is so far superior there's really no comparison." Fisher said, adding that UCF's involvement offers an extra layer of confidence that the other projects could not guarantee. "In my experience, when President Hitt says he's going to do something, he does it."

Fisher did not say how the county would back the bonds for the project, but he pointed out the research center would take up just 20 acres of the nearly 400-acre site. Fisher said the center will lure private investors who want to be close to UCF's innovators, which could make the county-owned land soar in value.

"It's the first seed in the garden," he said, adding, "The state will have to help at some point to make it work."

Soileau said he hopes the proposed facility will give UCF an edge in its planned bid for a new contract from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Industry officials said Tuesday that the research center is critical to that effort. Buoyed by its well-known research work in lasers and photonics, UCF hopes to have facility by the time the military awards a lucrative deal potentially worth more than $150 million next year.

"Building this new facility in Osceola would demonstrate they we have the infrastructure in place that they want," said Alex Fong, an Orlando industry executive and president of the Florida Photonics Cluster, a professional group working with UCF on its proposal for the Defense Department.

And the head of the largest research center in the state endorsed the plan.

"Early on, it was clear that we wouldn't be the destination for this — we just didn't have the available land or money that was needed," said Joe Wallace, executive director of the Central Florida Research Park, the 1,000-acre commerce park adjacent to UCF.

"But I have nothing but praise for Osceola County for stepping up to close this deal," he said. "It will certainly make the Orlando area a bigger, better technology cluster.''

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